Shekhar Bhatia

POPULAR Highgate actress Meera Syal and her former husband, journalist Shekhar Bhatia, will never forget how a policeman came to their aid after racism erupted at a professional football match.

The story is revealed by Shekhar, a visitor to the Camden Hindu Centre at Chalk Farm, in his hard-hitting and fascinating new book Namaste, Geezer: Life as a Fan and Journalist of Asian Heritage.

Meera, now married to actor Sanjeev Bhaskar, became famous as one of the creators of Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No 42. She is one of the UK’s best-known Asian personalities.

Back in 1991, Shekhar and Meera went to see West Ham play Port Vale, in Walsall. The experience was so unpleasant Shekhar said it was the first and last time Meera attended a professional football match.

Shekhar writes that all was going well at the match until a nearby local “Neanderthal” fan put his hands under his armpits and started making monkey noises each time West Ham’s black mid-fielder George Parris touched the ball.

Shekhar appealed to the man to stop but without success.

“I looked around at a sea of white faces and nobody else was saying anything to stop this numbskull,” Shekhar told Review. “Some smirked as if they condoned his behaviour.”

Shekhar and Meera, both appalled and unnerved by the racist rant, considered leaving when they spotted a uniformed police officer.

Shekhar said: “I expected the officer to persuade me to ignore the abuse – perhaps to treat it as banter. I had little faith in people understanding how much offence and hurt such racist behaviour can cause.”

However, the officer accompanied Shekhar back to his seat and then approached the racist man, warning him that he would be arrested if there was any more offensive behaviour.

Shekhar with his ex wife, Meera Syal

The man’s abuse stopped. But rather than walk off, the officer remained close to Shekhar and Meera to ensure they were safe for the rest of the match.

“It was one of those moments,” said Shekhar, “that reaffirmed our faith in the country and that most people, police included, believed in fair play.”

Today Shekhar is a leading London journalist and football writer whose book describes how he struggled against racism as a young man.

Namaste, incidentally is Sanskrit for “bowing to you” and is used as a greeting.

He reveals how as a young boy he and his late and much-loved dad Dharam suffered hostility, particularly at football matches.

Shekhar, who with his father attended Camden Hindu Centre, writes: “We were openly called Pakis and talked down in mock-Indian accents. ‘Gunga-din’ and ‘curry munchers’ were some of the favoured insults aimed at us.”

Dharam was also a campaigner against racism and wrote complaining letters to Tory MP Enoch Powell in 1968 following the “rivers of blood speech,” in which Powell suggested that immigrants didn’t want to integrate.

Shekhar remembers how, aged 17, he wanted to become a journalist and was told by his school careers teacher that it would never happen. “Journalist?” said the teacher. “Your sort of people work in accounting and banks.”

Shekhar proved his detractors wrong with a job on the former Tottenham Weekly Herald, which is where I first met him.

Later we both met up again as staffers on the London Evening Standard. Shekhar said: “It was the 1980s and I was 25 and the first journalist of Asian heritage in an editorial staff position on the paper.”

Most delighted was Shekhar’s dad, who came to see him at Standard’s office in then Fleet Street. He writes: “It softened even the most hardened hacks to see the love my father had for me.”

Shekhar moved to the Daily Express in 1994, where he became chief reporter covering many top international football games.

While appalled at the racism that still exists in the UK, he admits to loving his country of birth. “I can say I was born in the best country in the world, even though it has a shameful past with the Raj (the period in history when the British Empire ruled over India), occupying my motherland for almost a century and then oppressing it from my school history lessons.”

• Namaste, Geezer: Life as a Fan and Journalist of Asian Heritage. By Shekhar Bhatia, Football Shorts by Pitch Publishing. £9.99